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Facebook monetization strategy.

It was one of the biggest IPO in history. Right now, 5 days after it everybody is talking about Facebook’s shares sink continuously below the offer price. They say it’s because an unclear monetization strategy, other than advertising. I’m not a financial analyst, to be able to compare it with Amazon or Google IPO, but I can have some comments on their monetization strategy:

  • they make a lot of money from ads ( Google has the most of his revenue from advertising);
  • they get a cut from credits used in apps (mostly in games for now)
What’s more interesting is about to come:
  • Their own app center, where they get a cut from the app price, like every other app store (Follow on Quora How many Facebook apps exists). This is a big source of revenue, together with the amount of valuable data generated.
  • Analytics, and more that that is People Analytics, which every big player is trying to create
  • Social one-to-one Adwords: a mix of promoted Tweets and Adwords that only promotes the status update (= the ad in the stream, not on the right) to specific relevant people (they have data and it’s easy to add EdgeRank for the ad to be relevant).
  • Ecommerce. Facebook definitely will enter the ecommerce space. Being it offers (they already have them with great results) or any other way.
More than that, Facebook is not just a site. It’s a company with a great culture that will survive on their own, and it can’t be turned off just like that.

The reason why shares are going down now is because they didn’t had an IPO strategy with launching features and products to prove they can make more money (Linkedin just did that, launching a lot of cool features in the same time with the IPO, and raised the price). They will do this when the time is ready for a very high increase. Wait for that.

If you can buy FB shares, just go get them. You’ll double your money soon.


Posted 1 week ago. It has 0 notes and 0 comments.
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Is the web moving into people analytics?

Despite all privacy concerns, I think YES, and here’s why:

Analytics is helping businesses analyze market behavior and that’s how they increase their conversion rate, sales and other metrics. From offline agencies who are doing surveys on the streets to online departments crunching data, making correlations and reports, everybody is using analytics. They all hope to increase something.

On the web there are multiple types of analytics. I’m thinking of three big categories:

  • classic analytics, only numbers, averages, tops and all types of lists;
  • social analytics. With all the growth of information created each day, there is a need to crawl it and automatically create reports, sentiment analysis, trends, instant crisis discovery and so on; 
  • people analytics. I personally believe that the next big hit in this space will add the most important factor to the equation: the real user behind figures. The web 3.0 is about personalisation and for that businesses need to have the answer to who is question.

I call it people analytics. It will instantly know who are you, what are your interests, and what’s the chance of you doing an action. Just before you do it, so the chance to do it can be increased.

Posted 4 weeks ago. It has 0 notes and 0 comments.
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Why e-commerce won’t move on Facebook.

We all use internet. Actually you’re using it to read this article. There are a lot of activities that we do online: 

  • entertainment - online games, fun stuff, 9gag, videos
  • information - reading news, articles, research
  • shopping - products, travel, books
  • social media - stalking friends, posting photos, update twitter status
  • communication - business, personal

Maybe there are more. The point is that when being online you’re doing one of the these because you want or you have to do it. Let’s say “you’re in the mood of doing it”. When you play games you’re relaxing, when you read you’re seeking for new information, when you shop online you’re looking to buy things. Or when you enter Facebook you stalk your friends (or the better: “intense research on an individual”).

Some of them are very independent and can’t be mixed together (or shouldn’t). I’ll stop over ecommerce and social media, and especially what is called F-commerce or commerce on Facebook. Retailers started to open shops on Facebook, because they see their customers flocking there.

But let’s be honest: do you want to buy a new lamp or printer while you look at your friends pictures? These are different things, and I personally think retailers don’t realize that usually, people are not in the mood of buying when they are on Facebook. It’s basic psychology.

I think we should put ourselves in customers feet first. By keeping things separately and focus on what and when they (clients) want, retailers will sell more. Add social to ecommerce sites rather than move them on social networks.

And leave Facebook for stalking your friends. We all want that.

Posted 2 months ago. It has 0 notes and 0 comments.